Miami case exemplifies federal terrorism prosecutions
MIAMI – Federal authorities announced charges here Friday against seven men they described as “a homegrown terrorist cell” that planned to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and other buildings. But officials conceded that the group never had contact with al-Qaida or other terrorist groups and had not acquired the necessary explosives.
The group, centered in a small warehouse in Miami’s impoverished Liberty City neighborhood, apparently adhered to a vague and militant Islamic ideology, claimed the U.S. government had no authority over them and were led by a charismatic Haitian American named Narseal Batiste, according to officials and the four-count indictment. All but one were citizens or legal residents of the United States.
The case underscores the murkiness common to many of the government’s terrorism-related prosecutions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, often hinging on ill-formed plots or debatable connections to terrorism. It is also the latest in a series of FBI-run stings involving informants or government agents who pose as terrorists to build a case.
The indictment, which charges the men with seeking support from al-Qaida to wage a “ground war” on the United States, is based primarily on Batiste’s interactions with an unidentified government informant who posed as an al-Qaida representative and discussed plans for bombings and assaults on the Sears building, the FBI office in Miami and other targets. Batiste and the six others also allegedly swore an oath of loyalty to al-Qaida during meetings with the same informant.
But officials said the plot never progressed beyond the early planning stages and the group had no known contact with al-Qaida. Batiste allegedly recorded video of the U.S. courthouse and other federal buildings in Miami as part of a casing operation, but the camera was provided by the informant, the indictment said.
Deputy FBI Director John Pistole also said at a news conference that the talk of attacking the 110-story Sears Tower – the tallest building in the United States – was “aspirational rather than operational.” He said none of the men appeared on U.S. terrorism watch lists.
But Pistole and other U.S. officials said aggressive policing and early arrests were necessary. Prosecutors allege that the group’s actions, including the tape recordings and the requests for weapons and explosives, amounted to overt acts that can be prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws.
“Our philosophy is that we try to identify plots in the earliest stages possible, because we don’t know what we don’t know about a terrorism plot, and that once we have sufficient information to move forward with the prosecution, that’s what we do,” said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Rand Corp., said that although the Miami plot appears to be “embryonic at best,” the government faces a challenge because “amateur terrorists can kill as effectively as the professional kind.”
“It seems clear that their ambitions were serious; what’s not clear is whether they had any real capabilities to pull it off,” Hoffman said. “This is the difficult balance that we’re trying to strike between being vigilant and not overreacting and equating this with 9-11 or something.”
The group came to the attention of authorities when it began to seek the aid of foreign agents, federal officials said. One of the people the group sought aid from tipped terrorism investigators. A federal informant then presented himself to the group as an al-Qaida representative, officials said.
On Dec. 16, 2005, Batiste met in a hotel room with the informant and, about the same time, said he was trying to build an “Islamic army” in order to wage jihad, according to the indictment. He also asked for boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, vehicles and $50,000.
But the suspects received little other than military boots and the video camera from the false al-Qaida representative, according to the indictment. By May, the indictment suggests, the plan had largely petered out.
Batiste appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday along with four other defendants who had been arrested in raids Thursday: Patrick Abraham, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin and Rotschild Augustine. Another defendant, Lyglenson Lemorin, was arrested in Atlanta, while the seventh, Stanley Grant Phanor, was already in custody on a probation charge.
Five are U.S. citizens. Abraham is a Haitian illegally in the country and Lemorin is a Haitian with legal residency here, officials said. At least six appear to have faced criminal charges before, according to records, for marijuana possession, battery, assault, and concealed weapons charges.
Phanor had worked in construction, his family said, and took up studying Islam at the warehouse-like building a year ago. He called it “the temple.”
The building used to be a sub shop, but less than a year ago the men moved in and remodeled, a neighbor said.
They were not well-funded: Neighbors said the group drove old cars and some of them made money by selling shampoo and hair tonic on the street.
“We used to wonder, ‘What are they doing? Who are they?’ ” said Babalu Nesbitt, 67, an immigrant from the Bahamas who collects cans for recycling for a living, and who lives nearby. “But they were the kind that only wanted to talk to their own.”
They held readings of the Koran at times, and at others, could be seen practicing martial arts outside. After Hurricane Wilma knocked out the electricity in the area for days, the group passed out water from a silver van, some neighbors recalled.
Christopher Johnson, 37, a bodyguard and former Navy SEAL, recalled watching the kinds of martial arts they were using and being surprised that it seemed to be less about self-defense and more about attack. “A little bell went off,” he said. “I thought, there’s got to be a bigger purpose. But I let it ride.”